Common diabetes drugs may help prevent Parkinson’s

Elevated risk of Parkinson's disease among people with type 2 diabetes appears to be reduced by some medications used to treat their diabetes, finds a new study led by UCL researchers. The researchers are testing one of the drugs, called exenatide, as a potential Parkinson's treatment in an upcoming clinical trial, and the new findings, published in Brain , lend support to repurposing diabetes medications for people with Parkinson's. The findings confirmed that people with type 2 diabetes face an elevated risk of Parkinson's, when compared to another cohort of people without diabetes, but commonly prescribed drugs, GLP-1 agonists and DPP4 inhibitors, appeared to reverse that relationship. The researchers found that people who were taking two particular classes of diabetes treatments - GLP-1 agonists (such as exenatide) and DPP4 inhibitors - were less likely to be diagnosed with Parkinson's disease a few years later (average follow up time of 3.3 years), compared to people who were taking other diabetes medications. Those taking GLP-1 agonists were 60% less likely to develop Parkinson's compared to people taking other diabetes drugs. This study provides further verification for a phase 3 clinical trial of exenatide for people with Parkinson's, led by Professor Tom Foltynie (UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology), co-lead author of this study. The upcoming trial is currently recruiting 200 people with Parkinson's across the UK.